Local Consumer Review Survey

86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people aged 18-34)

Consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before feeling able to trust a local business

40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past 2 weeks – up from 18% last year

57% of consumers will only use a business if it has 4 or more stars

80% of 18-34 year olds have written online reviews – compared to just 41% of consumers over 55

91% of 18-34 year olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

89% of consumers read businesses' responses to reviews

Welcome to this year’s Local Consumer Review Survey! We’ve compiled the latest trends in online business reviews, giving you all the statistics you need to develop your online reputation management strategy for local businesses in 2019.

For the first time, we’ve delved into trends among different age categories, to find out how the different generations use and value local business reviews. Because of this, we’ve slightly altered the proportion of each age group to ensure this is closely tied to the US population. You can find more on the age breakdowns in the methodology.

Posting Online Reviews

How many times have you used the internet to find a local business in the last year?

Key Findings

27% of consumers looked online daily for a local business in 2018 – more than double the proportion in 2017

69% look online for local businesses monthly (up from 54%)

56% search for local businesses weekly (up from 41% last year)

Substantially more consumers searched daily, weekly and monthly for local businesses this year. After the gradual increases seen over the last few years, it’s fascinating to see this huge leap.

This year, we chose to focus on the differences in the use of reviews by consumers aged 18-34s, 35-54s, and 55s. Subsequently, we’ve slightly increased the proportion of over 55s to suit the US population. Generally, the over 55s in the study tended to be less familiar with searching the internet for local businesses, as well as using online reviews. This is the likely cause of the slightly higher proportion of consumers who didn’t search for businesses at all.

At the other end of the scale, more than half of 18-34-year-olds search for local businesses every day, while 81% check every week.

Do you read online reviews for businesses?

Key Findings

The vast majority of consumers (86%) read reviews for local businesses.

While there was a slight growth in those surveyed who’d never read a review, this could be a quirk of this sample. We’ll be looking forward to comparing this next year, to see if this trend continues.

When looking at the different age splits, there’s a clear trend between the frequency of consumers reading reviews, and their age group. Just 6% of people aged 55+ ‘always’ read consumer reviews, with a further 69% regularly or occasionally reading them.

Only 5% of people aged 18-34 never read reviews, with 50% always turning to them.

Which devices have you used to read consumer reviews in the last year?

Key Findings

Fewer consumers used PCs or Macs to read reviews in 2018

78% of over 55s read reviews on PCs or Macs

75% of 35-54-year-olds read reviews on mobile browsers

One key story this year is the dip in consumers reading reviews on computers. Could review reading be being reserved for portable devices?

When looking across age groups, there are plenty of variations. Over 55s are far more likely to use computers to read reviews than their younger counterparts, while 35-54-year-olds opt for mobile browsers. 18-34-year-olds are far more likely to read on apps.

Overall, there wasn’t a lot of change in the proportion of consumers reading reviews on mobile this year. Tablets, on the other hand, have become slightly more important.

Key Findings

Last year, we saw a significant dip in consumers heading to local business websites after reading positive reviews (54% in 2016, down to 37%). In 2018, this bounced right back up, with half of the consumers visiting websites as their first step.

Interestingly, this seems to be lowering the proportion of consumers who continue reading after seeing a positive review. This year, 78% of consumers’ typical next steps are straight to the business, compared to 64% last year. Are positive reviews now the deciding factor, meaning consumers need no further convincing to get in touch?

Across the ages, there does seem to be some key differences in consumers’ actions. 69% of over 55s head to the website first – clearly, websites aren’t dead yet! The younger group are more likely to visit or contact the business than their older counterparts.

Do you trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations?

Key Findings

91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

More consumers require multiple reviews to trust reviews

Older consumers are more likely to be skeptical about online reviews

Over the last year, there was a slight decline in the proportion of consumers trusting online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Could this be a reaction to fake reviews in the news damaging customer trust in online reviews?

Interestingly, there was a growth in the proportion of consumers requiring multiple reviews before feeling able to trust a business. In our recent Google Reviews Study, we found that the average local business has 39 reviews on Google. However, businesses ranking in the top 3 search positions have 47 reviews. The more reviews, the easier it is for consumers and search engines alike to trust that review ratings are accurate.

Have you read a fake review in the past year?

Key Findings

In 2018, there was a dip in the proportion of consumers reading fake reviews.

Rather than this suggesting fake reviews are declining, it could indicate that fakers are getting better at hiding them.

As is the trend throughout this report, there are contrasts between the 18-34 category and the 55+. 57% of the youngest group identified lots of fake reviews, with a further 32% saying they’d read at least one. Those aged 55+ were less likely to have spotted multiple fake reviews.

What’s the minimum star rating a business must have for you to use them?

Key Findings

57% of consumers won’t use a business that has fewer than 4 stars (up from 48% in 2017)

11% want a perfect 5 stars

61% of over 55s want businesses to have 4 or more stars (compared to 52% of 18-34 year olds)

Over the last year, the proportion of consumers expecting a high star rating has shot up. Now, 57% of consumers won’t use a business with fewer than 4 stars.

While many businesses surpass this on Google, those that fall below this average star rating on any platform could risk deterring a significant number of potential customers. There are hundreds of review sites out there, with many consumers looking beyond Google, Facebook and Yelp to choose a business near them.

Again, we saw some interesting trends here across age groups. 61% of over 55s won’t use businesses with under 4 stars. While the proportion of shoppers in this age group are less inclined to read local business reviews, those that do are more likely to expect good results.

How many reviews does a business need before you believe its Average Star Rating?

Key Findings

Consumers require an average 40 online reviews before believing a business’s star rating is accurate (up from 34 in 2017)

6% of consumers need businesses to have more than 200 reviews

57% expect more than 11 reviews (51% in 2017)

The latest Local Search Ranking Factors survey reported increased importance in review signals, with the quantity of native Google reviews being the third biggest increase in focus for experts.

Quantity is clearly important for consumers (as well as Google!) On average, consumers want businesses to have 40 reviews before they trust the overall star rating is representative. This is up 6 reviews from last year.

The group aged 18-34 require the highest number of reviews – this age group evidently expect businesses to take reviews as seriously as they do.

How many online reviews do you read before you can trust a business?

Key Findings

Consumers read an average 10 reviews (up from 7 in 2017)

70% read 4 or more reviews, with 20% looking at more than 11

18-34-year-olds read 11 reviews before feeling able to trust a business

While consumers may expect a high number of reviews before feeling able to trust a business, it’s unlikely many consumers have the time to read hundreds of peers’ experiences before choosing where to get dinner.

Yet, there’s been a marked growth in the number of reviews the average consumer reads. Now, 70% of consumers read 4 or more reviews before trusting a business.

Whether you want to impress local customers, or to demonstrate your worth to Google, it’s incredibly important to build a reputation management strategy focused on gathering a steady stream of new online reviews.

Request, track and respond to online reviews for a business reputation worth shouting about

How recent does an online review need to be to impact your decision?

Key Findings

40% of consumers only care about reviews submitted within the last two weeks (18% last year)

64% of 18-34-year-olds are only impacted by reviews from the past two weeks

In the last year, there’s been a huge increase in consumers expecting reviews to be new. The proportion of consumers who are solely impacted by reviews written within the past two weeks has more than doubled.

85% of consumers believe reviews older than 3 months aren’t relevant – up from 77% in 2017. Local businesses need to keep fresh reviews coming in if they are to impress potential customers. Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

When searching for a local business, do you read businesses’ responses to their reviews?

Key Findings

89% of consumers read local businesses’ responses to reviews

29% always read review responses

Nearly all (96%) of 18-34-year-olds read review responses

For the first time, we’ve added a question on replies to reviews to find out if these are valued by consumers.

We found that the vast majority of consumers read business owners’ responses to reviews. Whether they’re positive, negative, or even fake, it’s absolutely critical that businesses stay on top of their reviews, and respond professionally, politely – and pronto!

Monitoring reviews across multiple platforms take time, but it’s critical to monitor these so you’re aware of everything that’s being said about the business.

Negative feedback deters many consumers from choosing a business, so replying to these give readers the context needed to understand poor feedback. Responding to reviews gives you the chance to get your story across, as well as to show potential customers what you’re really like as a business.

Have you ever left a local business an online review?

Key Findings

This year, a higher proportion of respondents told us they hadn’t left local business reviews. While this could be a quirk of this dataset, there could also be other reasons.

Trust in reviews has been damaged, with the prevalence of fake reviews hammering home that you can’t always believe what you read on the internet. We’ll be sure to watch this trend for the 2019 report.

The youngest group are far more inclined to leave online reviews, with 96% being open-minded about feeding back to businesses. These digital natives may well see leaving reviews as commonplace, rather than something done for standout service.

Over 55s are far less likely to leave reviews, with 22% saying they ‘never’ will. It’s critical for local businesses to engage every type of customer to get a truly representative idea of how the business is performing.

Have you ever been asked to leave a review for a business?

Key Findings

66% of consumers have been asked to leave a review (down from 74% last year)

83% of 18-34-year-olds have had requests to review local businesses

50% of over 55s have been asked to leave a review

This is another question where we’ve seen an unexpected drop this year. While this could be down to the individual experiences of this year’s respondents, it may also be due to a growing reluctance among businesses to ask for reviews.

The dramatic difference across age groups of the consumers who’ve been asked to leave reviews was particularly interesting. Only 50% of over 55s have been asked to leave reviews, with 29% going on to do so. 18-34-year-olds were far more likely to have been asked, and also, far more likely to leave a review if asked to.

But this is no reason to narrow your reputation management strategy to only focus on this millennial and Gen Z segment. Every review is equal – and by asking every customer to leave a review, you’re far more likely to grow the number of reviews quickly and naturally.

Methodology

This year’s Local Consumer Review Survey follows on from 2017’s, exploring trends in online reviews for local businesses over the past year. It includes new and modified questions to fit into the key SEO and local business reviews agenda of 2018. The statistics and findings are solely concerned with reviews for local businesses (on sites such as Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Yelp etc), and not general product reviews (such as on Amazon).

Based on the views of a representative sample of 1,000 US-based consumers, the Local Consumer Review Survey was conducted in October 2018 with an independent consumer panel. This year, we have altered the number of respondents in each age group to more closely match the US population and thus provide representative results. The breakdowns are as follows:

US Population

2017 Study

2018 Study

18-34

28%

37%

28%

35-54

34%

40%

34%

55+

37%

23%

37%

When analyzing data on those who have read consumer reviews, we removed respondents who don’t read reviews to give a more accurate reading. Averages for statistics in Q11 and Q12 are based on the midpoints of data bandings.

For any questions about the report, or to speak with a member of the BrightLocal team, please contact content@brightlocal.com, or leave a comment below. Publishers are welcome to use charts and online reviews statistics crediting BrightLocal and linking to the report.

BBB accreditation is just for those who pays, not for those who have highest rating. In Canada don’t don’t know about Homestars the reviews are real or fake because some businesses have thousands of reviews with no negative reviews. I think Google should be in first place in terms of real reviews.

Could you specify who participated in the poll? I am interested in demographics, first of all. “97% of consumers used the internet to find a local business” sounds great but I will have to prove it’s true to the skeptics 🙂

The survey is based on the views of a representative sample of 1,031 US-based consumers, conducted in October 2017 with an expert consumer panel. The respondents were all independent, with no affiliation to BrightLocal.

Do you have any kind of information or stats that show the impact of positive and negative reviews on a local business’ earnings? That would be something really, really interesting and helpful for local businesses to know! It would show them, without a doubt, how critical both positive and negative reviews are to their business.

So how do we fight all those fake reviews posted from our competitors? I see recently an increase of all those fake personas posting fake reviews. On the other hand I see google removing real reviews but keeps the fake one ???

Hi Chavdar! Unfortunately, there’s no easy fix. You need to keep on top of fake reviews: monitoring all review sites and reacting as soon as a fake review hits. If it’s clearly false (and you can prove this), you may have luck in reporting this to review site admins and they’ll remove it.

But of course, this doesn’t always work. It’s important to respond to every review, and make clear politely but frankly on why a review is false so that future readers know to discount the information – before it has the potential to damage your brand.

If false reviews are bringing down your overall scores, you should consider reaching out to your customers to encourage them to leave reviews (without breaking t&cs of some sites, of course), and hopefully this will limit the impact of bad reviews.

But at this point in time, review sites aren’t doing enough. If it’s any consolation, you’re not alone!

Totally agree; it spoils the trustworthiness of review ratings as a whole. People have to read the reviews to find out how reliable the so ratings score is. Here’s hoping they find a way to sort it out.

Reviews are a priority when I look for new services on the internet. I also recommend to businesses the importance of them having reviews and responding to bad ones as well as the good ones. I always enjoy the Bright Local updates and Myles penmanship.

We see counterfeiting as one of the biggest obstacles to the growth of online commerce, especially for smaller e-commerce sites that want to conquer their segments.It may take some time, but the fake reviews will not take any longer, but sooner or later all these things will be cleaned up, just look at the cleaning of the treasury that Amazon made with its product / exchange rate, which is the Amazon world of the Amazon Seller turns upside down.

Thanks for your comment. Yes, fake reviews is a serious issue and we can only hope that over time Google in particular does more to allow people to fight them, otherwise trust in reviews is only going to deteriorate over time.

I was looking for a palm tree lamp for sale to decorate my kids room, and I have been having a hard time deciding on which product to buy. I agree that I am more likely to trust a site or a product if there have been reviews left already. However, it is alarming that 25% of reviews may be fake. I guess I just need to come to terms that I am taking a risk whenever I purchase something online.

it’s absolutely true that links won’t likely help “…poor quality content, or cause low relevance content to rank…”. That being said, without good backlink equity, it’s tough to get anywhere… so yes, I agree wholeheartedly, Links Still Matter

One of the most interesting fake reviews I read about recently was the man who faked the non-existent restaurant on TripAdvisor. This man was able to make it the most popular restaurant in England. His phone didn’t stop ringing and eventually, he decided to open it in his backyard, calling it “The Shed”. He even had all the famous folk calling him trying to book a table. It just goes to show that fake reviews do work.

If you’ve ever tried to create a “members” profile on AngiesList and wrote some reviews you’ll know what I’m talking about. They have quite the spam filter (and human review team) that read all reviews.

We see fake reviews as one of the biggest impediments to the growth of online commerce, and particularly smaller e-commerce sites seeking to grab their slice.

It may take a little time, but fake reviews will not last as sooner or later all this stuff gets cleaned up, just look at the closet cleaning Amazon did with their discounted product/ review exchange turning the amazon seller world upside down.

I am actually shocked Yelp is as high as it is. I see so many shady businesses advertising on there that it is unbelievable. The barrier of entry is so low to advertise on yelp. Yelp has created an advertising culture that businesses almost have to cheat to win on. You can start your business yesterday, be a convicted felon, unlicensed in your industry that requires a license and advertise on yelp.. That ought to scare people!

I think the number of consumers that have seen a fake review is much higher. Yelp says that 25% of all of their reviews are fake. There are way too many fake reviews between companies selling, offering discounts or review swap groups. I’ve uncovered almost 3000 businesses falsifying reviews with anywhere from 5 to 150 fake reviews. It is more widespread than most consumers know.

Hi Jason – yes, it’s definitely a worrying trend! Made even more worrying by the majority of consumers who don’t feel able to identify every fake review – there could be so many more that are slipping through undetected!

For this, we’ve stripped out all the people who’ve never been asked for reviews, so this covers the actions of the people who have been asked to see if they ended up doing what they’d been requested to. There’s a pie chart just below this that covers this – hopefully that’ll be useful for your site?

Thanks Courtney – the first question is around frequency in the last year (focusing on recent behavior), while the second is about if people read to see if a business is good or bad (focusing on their intentions when reading reviews, so not focused on a finite time period). I’ve now clarified in the text the difference between the two. Thanks for your note 🙂

Always look forward to the new Local Consumer Review Survey being released! The information provided is outstanding and we use it on a daily basis when speaking with business owners about the importance of their Reviews and Online Reputation.

The BBB actually has really good processes in place to guard against fake online reviews. The are also the only entity that actually does a background check on their advertisers. Unlike Yelp and Angies List who don’t pay attention to state licenses and laws. For example, in Texas you will find unlicensed movers advertising on Yelp, Angies List, Nextdoor App, Facebook and Thumbtack. You won’t find that on the BBB. Once consumers realize how easy the Barrier of entry is for a business to advertise on Yelp, Angies List, Facebook, etc.. Those others will start to lose consumer confidence. Here is a great article that talks about some of the BBB Online Policies-http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2017/10/30/qa-on-bbb-customer-reviews-not-just-another-unkempt-local-review-site/